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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24415078">The Father Pt. 2</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsuki_llama/pseuds/tsuki_llama'>tsuki_llama</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Office [10]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Darker Than Black</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:00:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,817</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24415078</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsuki_llama/pseuds/tsuki_llama</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Misaki has a conversation with her father following his not-so-great introduction to Hei.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hei/Kirihara Misaki</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Office [10]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/483635</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>151</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Father Pt. 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Come in.”</p><p>Her father sounded a bit harried, but he smiled when Misaki entered his office and shut the door behind her.</p><p>“Hi Dad - do you have a minute?”</p><p>“Of course.” He checked his watch. “I have a conference call in twenty minutes, but I can always make time for my daughter. Is this a professional visit, or personal?”</p><p>In answer, Misaki sat down in one of the four leather armchairs on the right side of the room and crossed her legs. If she’d come on official business, she would have remained standing in front of his desk.</p><p>Naoyasu closed the case file that he’d been reading and took a seat in the chair across from her, settling in comfortably. “Well, this is a surprise; you never stop in and see me.”</p><p>For a brief moment, Misaki thought he looked nervous about something, but it passed so quickly she decided she must have imagined it.</p><p>“I was over in the HR offices this morning, so I thought I’d stop in for a quick chat,” she said. She smoothed down her pants somewhat awkwardly; personal visits with her father at work weren’t something that she typically did. It felt a little odd to be in his office at all, let alone sitting down so casually.</p><p>Naoyasu nodded. “The injury on duty report? I heard about Matsumoto’s accident; how is he doing?”</p><p>A fresh surge of guilt rose up in her gut; she’d spent all morning fighting it down. She took a steadying breath. “He’s doing well; he’s home from the hospital, so he’s more comfortable now I guess.”</p><p>“I can see you’re taking it hard; Misaki, it’s normal to feel personally responsible when someone under you gets injured, but I’m sure you sent him out with the best possible instructions and resources. It’s not your fault when things go wrong in the field.”</p><p>“Hei keeps telling me the same thing,” she said, staring down at her hands. It eased her mind a tiny bit, knowing her father didn’t blame her. Not that she’d thought he would; but just hearing him say it helped. “I know there was no way they could have anticipated the attack, but I still can’t keep going over what I could have done differently…”</p><p>Naoyasu raised an eyebrow. “Ah, your new recruit was there as well?”</p><p>Misaki could have sworn there was a note of accusation in his voice. “Yes. He’s hardly a new recruit anymore though; he’s been with us for three months now, and he’s already arrested five contractors, flipped four of them, and uncovered the intel that let us stop the hit on the head of Kawata Group. No one in any department has that kind of record, so early in their careers.”</p><p>She didn’t bother trying to mask her pride; she’d <em>known</em> that he would be an amazing asset to Section Four.</p><p>Her father, however, didn’t appear to be impressed. “I suppose not. I do wonder though whether…someone like him is ready to back up a senior officer in the field.”</p><p>“It feels like sending him as backup was the <em>only</em> right decision I made in that operation. He saved Matsumoto’s life.”</p><p>“Hm. I know this is your first hire, but remember that new officers have a tendency to embellish their reports, make themselves look better than perhaps they would otherwise. You have to judge the situation using clean, dry facts. It’s less exciting, certainly, but accuracy is what matters.”</p><p>Misaki snorted. “Actually, he downplayed his actions in his report, to the point where he may as well not have been there at all. Matsumoto is adamant that without Hei, he would have taken the full brunt of that contractor’s power, and probably been killed, or at least more seriously injured. And the <em>clean, dry facts</em> back that up.”</p><p>She didn’t understand why Hei was so unwilling to take the credit he was due; but he was clearly uncomfortable with it, so she tried not bring it up. Despite that he needed constant reassurances in their relationship, professionally, he didn’t like any acknowledgment of his abilities or accomplishments. She was still trying to figure out the right balance with him.</p><p>“Anyway, I didn’t stop by to talk about my failed operation -”</p><p>“Misaki, an injury doesn’t mean -”</p><p>“I just wanted to see if you’d like to come over to my place for dinner tonight,” she finished.</p><p>“Your place?” Naoyasu chuckled. “You know I’d rather go to a restaurant than eat takeout.”</p><p>Misaki took a deep breath. “Not takeout. Actually, Hei is cooking.”</p><p>Her father’s expression immediately closed off. “So you <em>are</em> seeing him?”</p><p>“I…didn’t think you knew that.”</p><p>“It was certainly obvious when I stopped by your offices last week. I’d hoped I was mistaken.”</p><p>Her face heated. “That wasn’t - I mean, we weren’t <em>doing</em> any - why would you hope we weren’t seeing each other?”</p><p>“Well, to begin with, is it really a good idea to become romantically involved with one of your subordinates? Especially one so new to the team?”</p><p><em>No</em>, Misaki thought to herself. <em>It’s really not</em>.</p><p>In fact, she was extremely anxious over the idea of her team finding out, and was grateful that Hei was willing to go along with her request to keep it quiet. She supposed it helped that he was used to keeping secrets; but he wanted to have a <em>normal</em> life. How long would he be willing to put up with hiding their relationship?</p><p>“We’re not telling anyone right now,” she told her father. “Just in case it doesn’t work out. But I filed a notice with HR when I dropped off the injury report this morning, so we’re not breaking any rules. The regulations say that a romantic relationship between a supervisor and a subordinate is allowed, as long as there’s a notice filed. And if it becomes necessary, one of us can transfer to a different department.”</p><p>She hoped it wouldn’t come to that; she couldn’t possibly imagine leaving her team, and although Hei would do an outstanding job wherever he worked, she refused to consider the idea of him anywhere else. He was just so good with their team in Section Four.</p><p>“Well, that aside,” Naoyasu said, “do you want to be wasting your time with someone who won’t work out in the long run?”</p><p>“What? I said we were keeping quiet just for now; just in case. But there’s no reason to think we won’t work out.”</p><p>“Oh? I didn’t get the impression that he was a very committed type of person. Leaving his old job the way he did -”</p><p>“Because his former employers turned out to be <em>criminals</em>. And he stayed with them far longer than most people would have.” Certainly longer than any typical contractor; contractors changed sides all the time, whereas Hei had remained loyal for a decade.</p><p>“Exactly - he worked for criminals. Lying is probably second nature to him.”</p><p>“Dad, you’re hardly being fair!” Misaki exclaimed.</p><p>Her father had always liked to give her boyfriends a hard time - not that she’d really had that many - but she’d never seen him so set against someone like this. She was struggling to understand where it was coming from.</p><p>“Misaki, I just think it’s far too soon; you haven’t known him long enough to know what sort of a person he is, to get so involved with him.”</p><p>“I know enough. And isn’t that what dating is for - to get to know someone better?”</p><p>“Have you met <em>his</em> family then? His friends? What are they like?”</p><p>She hesitated; this was tricky ground. “Well, no. His parents died when he was younger, and the rest of his family is still back in China…I’ll meet them soon, I’m sure.” She hoped, anyway.</p><p>“Do you have anything in common? Similar hobbies?”</p><p>“We have the same values; that’s the most important thing.”</p><p>Her father gave a snort. “I hardly believe that’s true.”</p><p>“Of course it’s true! How could any two people hope to get along if they didn’t believe in the same things?”</p><p>“That’s what I don’t believe - that his values at all align with yours. If he even has any.”</p><p>“You’re basing all of this off an hour’s worth of conversation? Dad, that’s ridiculous and you know it. Come have dinner with us, get to know him better.”</p><p>Hei had been positively alarmed at her suggestion of inviting her father to dinner; his agreement had come with more reluctance than she had anticipated. The conversation at the restaurant had been awkward, certainly, but it was just one conversation. He was putting too much pressure on himself. She was sure that if he just relaxed and didn’t think of it as some sort of mission he had to navigate through, he’d be fine.</p><p>She was also sure that her father would come to like and respect Hei, once they had the opportunity to spend some time with each other; the two of <em>them</em> had a shared core of values, as well.</p><p>The whole sort-of-a-contractor, former-assassin-for-the-Syndicate thing would be a bit harder to get around.</p><p>One thing at a time.</p><p>“I’m afraid I’m busy tonight,” Naoyasu said. “And anyway, I have no interest in pretending to approve of someone who’s so far beneath you and what you deserve. Especially when it’s not even serious.”</p><p>“Well, I would say it’s at least a little serious; I’ve asked him to move in with me.”</p><p>She’d never seen her father look so stunned. “Misaki, please tell me you are joking.”</p><p>“Why would I joke about something like that? I mean, I certainly didn’t plan on taking a step like that so soon, but when his place burned down, it felt right. It still feels right.”</p><p>“His place burned down, so he moved in with you,” Naoyasu repeated, almost to himself. “That level of manipulation…”</p><p>Her jaw dropped. “Manipulation? You think he used an apartment fire to <em>manipulate</em> me? He saved someone’s life in that fire - and he wasn’t even going to tell me, except I found out on my own.</p><p>“I didn’t come here to argue,” she sighed, wondering how they’d even gotten to that point in the first place. “He’s a good man, and he makes me happy. I don’t understand why you’re so unwilling to even try and see that. Dad, what is it, really?”</p><p>“Misaki…” He hesitated for a long moment; then finally he said, “You’re my daughter. I just want what’s best for you.”</p><p>“Then I hope you can trust me to know what that is.”</p><p>She stood, trying not to let her disappointment show. Maybe it <em>was</em> too much to ask, for him to instantly approve of someone he’d only met once, after all. She’d just never expected to meet such resistance.</p><p>“He’s someone important to me, and he’s going to be in my life from now on. Let me know if you change your mind about dinner.”</p>
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